But Sirius did not heed the other ghost's warning. In fact, he hardly heard it. For as Nearly Headless Nick spoke, Sirius spotted a shabby wizard moping his way into the Ministry. Sirius bounded toward him.
"Remus! Remus, over here!"
Sirius leaped in front of Remus Lupin and began to babble excitedly.
"By gum, Remus, I'm so happy to see you! I was trapped behind that miserable curtain—how's Harry? What happened? Tell me everything…"
But Remus walked straight through his old friend without so much as a nod. His gait was slow and weighty as the living wizard made his way to the information desk. Sirius bounced after him, all but wagging his tail in delight.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Lupin, not today." The man behind the information desk had spoken. Sirius stopped short and cocked his head to listen.
"Why am I not surprised?" his friend sighed. Remus looked about ten years older than when Sirius had last seen him. The bags under his eyes, the gauntness of his face, the shabbiness of his clothes, all seemed accentuated.
"I wish I could help you, Mr. Lupin, but you still don't have the security clearance necessary—"
"Sure, sure. No one has the security clearance to enter the Department of Mysteries except the Minister himself and a couple janitors. Where's the sense in that?" and although his tone had not changed, Sirius knew his friend was enraged. "All we've asked of the Ministry is that we be allowed to investigate a little. We haven't been in that room since our friend… disappeared, and we just want to look around! Maybe take a few measurements, a picture, just something."
"I understand your need for closure, Mr. Lupin—"
"It's not closure! We just need to know what happened." Remus shook his head sadly. "I thought you guys were supposed to be on our side now."
"The Ministry, while acknowledging the Dark Lord's return, has no official position on this issue and will not comment until such a time when—"
"Thank you. I'll be back again tomorrow."
Remus tossed down his visitor's button [which read, under purpose of visit, "Fruitless Inquiry"], and turned to leave.
Sirius was crestfallen. Were Remus to go down to the Department of Mysteries, Sirius would be able to take his human form and speak to him! But it sounded as though Fudge wouldn't let anyone at all into the Department. Nevertheless, Sirius squared his shoulders and made to follow Remus home.
"You won't be able to talk to him!" Nearly Headless Nick cried from across the room. "Don't go with him! It will only make it harder!"
But Sirius waved him off.
A little while later, Remus Lupin was walking down Grimmauld Place, his fists shoved deep in his pockets, his thoughts focused inward. As the wizard approached #12, he felt a faint electric shiver in the air around him. Remus looked up with a quizzical look on his face, then shrugged it off.
Sirius Black stepped off of his friend. He had been standing in Remus's footsteps, quite literally, pounding the air and shouting with all his might, with the sole effect being that Remus had glanced up. Now this was progress!
A moment later, Sirius was hurrying after his friend into his ancestral home, entirely unnoticed by the rather large crowd of witches and wizards filling the foyer.
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Listen, folks. I've got another two, three chapters left to this sucker. But tomorrow I'm leaving for Italy for three weeks. I know three weeks isn't a long time between updates for some stories on this website, but it seems pretty ridiculous to me. Plus I'm afraid that three weeks from now interest will have been lost, mine and yours. So. Should I try to rush it and finish this up in the next 24 hours and post it as is, to be proofread and gussied up in three weeks? Or do y'all want me to just wait till then so that I can give it the proper send-off?